Editorial: An attack on real patriots

Our opinion: Donald Trump’s attack on transgender people in the military is the latest hostile action against the LGBT citizens he promised as a candidate to protect.

President Donald Trump signaled to millions of Americans this week that they are less than full citizens simply because of their sexual identity. And he used the nation’s military leaders as human shields in his attack on civil rights.

Mr. Trump — who promised at the Republican convention to “do everything in my power to protect LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology” — has instead adopted a home-grown ideology to persecute them. His latest action: barring transgender people from serving in the military.

The attack on transgender service members came as disrespectfully as possible, in a tweet in which Mr. Trump falsely claimed he came up with the policy “after consultation with my Generals and military experts.” In fact, the Pentagon was caught off guard by the announcement, with Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicating the president’s policy hadn’t even been received by the secretary of defense, who had learned of it only a day before the Trump tweet. Even the president’s press secretary had no details, not even on whether the estimated 5,000 to 7,000 transgender people in the military would be discharged, honorably or otherwise, or when. This, after they had been welcomed into the privilege of serving their country openly.

Mr. Trump seems to have fabricated his rationale, too, citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption.” Neither assertion holds up under scrutiny. A Rand Corp. study put medical costs for transgender service members at a fraction of a percent of the military budget; the Pentagon spends ten times more on erectile dysfunction medication alone. And there has been no indication that allowing transgender people to serve openly has been at all disruptive.

The president’s real reason may be a desire to pander to lawmakers and zealots obsessed with other people’s sexuality, and to curry conservative support for a defense spending bill that includes not just military medical funding but money for his ridiculous notion of a costly border wall.

And so a president who avoided military service on the excuse of bone spurs boots patriotic men and women who volunteered to serve. A president who promised to drain the Washington swamp uses people ready to risk their lives for their country as pawns in his political agenda. A president who says he tells it like it is lies openly about support from military leaders.

And he does all this while he turns back the clock on protections for transgender students, and as his Justice Department argues in court that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people from discrimination.

We can only imagine how LGBTQ citizens feel about this president who promised to protect them. Or what the loyal men and women of the military must think of a commander-in-chief who mistreats their comrades and disrespects their commanders.

Jay Jochnowitz

7 Responses

If people want to risk their lives in the service of this country, I think they should be able to and welcomed. I don’t think insurance should cover transgender surgeries and medication, unless it is private insurance. There are a lot of things not covered by insurance that would come before this. It’s not clear though from this post that transgender surgery and medication would be covered by military insurance. Although Trump alludes to it, I would imagine there would need to be changes to existing coverage. Likely, he mentioned medical costs to get a rise out of people.

“And so a president who avoided military service on the excuse of bone spurs boots patriotic men and women who volunteered to serve. A president who promised to drain the Washington swamp uses people ready to risk their lives for their country as pawns in his political agenda. A president who says he tells it like it is lies openly about support from military leaders.”
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Perfectly stated.

—Imagine no longer, Jay:
the loyal men and women of the military love
their commander-in-chief.
—Any who believe this policy changes that
might find a re-think profitable.
—“Questioning”: is this a new ‘Q’ or a new part of the old ‘Q’?
What about the ‘I’s and the ‘A’s? And the fluids?
—Identity is in and orientation out?
Perhaps Trump, like the rest of us, is so confused by all of this
he’s given up keeping up.

“Imagine the nerve of our President in putting war winning ability over political correctness!”
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Do you believe that transgender soldiers aren’t as capable of fighting as cisgender soldiers?
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If so, why?